This race bills itself as a good introduction to ultra running and even goes as far as to call the course runnable. The implication being that this is an easy course. While I would definitely recommend this as someone’s first ultra, nothing about running 50K on this or any other course is easy. And there…
Who’s Running 2018 Blues Cruise 50K?
I’m always curious about the other crazies that run ultras so I’ve started looking at the demographics of those that run the same races I do. All of the data below was pulled from Ultrasignup and while I’ve found it to be fairly accurate (i.e. all my ultra finishes are listed there), it’s not going…
Season of Slow
I’m an idiot. Coming out of my lackluster performance at Burning River, I knew I needed a little R&R. I had several months in between races, which provided me the perfect opportunity for some downtime. I’m a planner though so I can’t just have complete unstructured nothingness stretching out as far as the eye can…
Popularity of Ultramarathons
Most people tend to track the popularity of ultras based on number of finishes or number of races in a given year. And based on these metrics, ultra popularity rapidly increased after the year 2000 and is at its peak. This makes sense to me. The book Born to Run came out about 10 years…
2018 Digits to Date
I was messing around with my training log earlier today and stumbled upon some interesting numbers. Well, I found them interesting. I’ll let you be the ultimate judge though. Here are my monthly mileage totals going back to when I started logging them. The first thing that jumped out is that I just set a…
2018 Burning River Participant Demographics
I’m always curious what type person runs an ultra so I’ve pulled together some data on who else ran Burning River 100 this year. All numbers were pulled from Ultrasignup based on the race results posted on the Burning River website. Age and Gender As is typical in hundreds, the starting field was dominated by…
Just a 20 Miler
I had a humorous exchange with a co-worker this past week. He’s training for his first ultra that’s coming up in a couple weeks (Labor Pains) and I asked how far he was running this weekend. He said “just 20 miles” and immediately paused like he’d just dropped the F bomb. After a second, he…
My 100-Miler Ranks: 2018 Update
I’m now up to nine different 100s over the past couple years. No race is exactly the same and since everyone looks for something different when choosing races, I thought I would give you my ranks in various categories. Disclaimer: These are my own personal opinions based on how I remember them over the past…
Time For a Reset
As a runner, you’re supposed to listen to your body. Muscles more sore than normal? Take an extra day off. Something starting to feel a little off? Cut back your mileage for a week. Sharp stabbing pains every time you lace them up? Schedule an appointment with your doctor of choice and take the rest…
2018 Burning River 100 Mile Race Report
No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Helmuth von Moltke the Elder I’ve done enough ultras to know that whatever gameplan I might come up with, no matter how well thought out it might be, will eventually need to be tossed out the window at some point. And BR100 was no exception. I had…